Category: Churches of Bennington, NH

Live Nativity

December 21st, 2024

Since 2016, theBennington Congregational Church has put on a Live Nativity in December. This was the brainchild of Melissa Penny Lawless, who often preaches at the church. She said that she had a strong urge “to bring Baby Jesus to Bennington” that year. To pursue the idea, Rev. Lawless gathered a team of local women: Anne Trow, Linda Osienski, and Molly Flower Eppig to plan it. Interestingly, although they all live in Bennington, only one of them was a member of the church. Perhaps this is the strength of the endeavor — everyone, whether churched, unchurched, or differently churched, comes together to make the Live Nativity happen.

Rev Lawless wrote the script, costumes were designed and made, a stable was built, a cast was assembled, and the show went up! Every year there is a worry that we will not find volunteers with a little baby to be the Holy Family — but every year, the stars align and the show goes on. Children of all ages play shepherds and angels. Town worthies portray the Wise Men, Innkeepers, and King Herod. The Angel Gabriel shimmers in her costume, and live sheep enliven the play. In the past few years, a young girl has been the narrator, adding to the charm and simplicity of the story. The script is punctuated with appropriate Christmas carols to which the audience can sing along. Sometimes, a light snow drifts down on the scene, making it look like a Christmas card. It is a lovely, small-town experience.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on January 14, 2025. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month – for free.
The Catholic Church

April 1st, 2024

In small towns of northern New England, if you see a Roman Catholic church, you know that you are in a former or current Mill Town. With the influx of people from Quebec Province, Ireland, and Italy in the 1890s, those workers needed a place of worship. And so it was in Bennington, New Hampshire.

The oldest churches in Town were the Congregational Church [1833] and the Baptist Church [1824]. The Town was founded as a place for mills, but originally those were small, local, family-run operations. Immigration to Bennington hit its stride in the late 1800s, when people arrived to work in the Paper Mill. These immigrants needed a church of their own, but there was no Catholic Church.

The first Catholic residents of the Town had to travel to Keene to attend church. Beginning in 1870, a priest from Keene would come to Bennington once a month, to hold mass in some private home. In 1875, they could go to Peterborough, once a church was established there. In the 1880s, Catholic church services were held weekly in the Town Hall, conducted by visiting priests from Hillsboro. It was a dream to have a church of their own and a dedicated cemetery. All this required several steps: purchasing land [1894], receiving permission from the Bishop for a ‘mission church’ without a resident priest [1895], and building a church. Ground was broken in 1895, for a church named Saint Patrick’s which rose on a knoll at the south end of Main Street, where it turns south to Greenfield.

The original church, before it was painted white.

Not until 1936 did the parish finally have its own pastor for the flock. A house was built across Greenfield Road from the church as a rectory and parish hall. By 1942, members of the parish came from Greenfield, Antrim, Francestown, Hancock, and New Boston. In 2005, the Bishop of New Hampshire decided that there weren’t enough priests to go around. Thus the Bennington, Harrisville, and Peterborough parishes were to be com-bined into Divine Mercy parish. In 2011, the church was decommissioned, and for a few years the basement of the building was the location for Town elections, until they moved to the school due to mold in the walls. The building is now a private home.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on April 29, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month – for free.
The Baptist Church

December 11th, 2023

Baptist Churches began in 1612, among English refugees living in Holland. They were unwelcome in England due to their non-participation in the Church of England. This was the same group that became known as the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock. In New Hampshire, the first congregation was established in 1751, and by 1809, there were churches in Weare, Temple, Mason, and Dublin. The time was ripe for the formation of a Baptist Church in Bennington — except that there was no Bennington then.

A Baptist Church was begun in Greenfield. They met at Joseph Eaton’s house on December 17, 1805. They called the new entity the “Peterborough and Society Land Baptist Church.” The Eaton house was in Greenfield at the time, but when the borders of Bennington were drawn, that part of Greenfield became part of Bennington. Among the early members were John Colby, Joseph Eaton, Benjamin Nichols, and Isaac Tenney, along with some wives and daughters, and they all became Bennington residents when the borders changed. On the 19th of August, 1824, the name was changed to Society Land Baptist Church. At last, Bennington was formed in 1842, and the name of the congregation became the Bennington Baptist Church.

Church services were held in a barn, but it is unknown where it was located. Surely it was in the Village, as down-town Bennington was called. Earliest ministers were chosen from among the Elders of the church: Elders Elliott, Westcott, Farrar, Goodnow, McGregor and Joseph Davis. After a while, ordained ministers were called to serve: Reverends J.A. Boswell, F. Page, John Woodbury, Zebulon Jones, Amzi Jones, J.M. Chick, S.L. Elliott, and W.W. Lovejoy.

During Rev. Lovejoy’s tenure, a big decision was made. In January, 1852, the Bennington congregation decided to rent Woodbury’s Hall, at Antrim for their meetings. Why? Did the meetinghouse roof leak? Was the building in Bennington too small, or too drafty? Had the road along the river toward Antrim been improved? A month later, the group voted to hold all their meetings in Antrim, and five years later, they were calling it the Antrim Baptist Church.

The barn of the house at 27 Bible Hill Road was once the Bennington Baptist Church.
The photo shows the barn at the rear of the house, projecting off to the right.

In those days, an unused, unclaimed structure was often moved to another location and repurposed. The former Bennington Baptist Church building was moved from its original location to become the barn of the house at 27 Bible Hill Road. It is still there today.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on January 1, 2024. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
The Congregational Church

July 10th, 2023

When Bennington, New Hampshire was just a cluster of raw-wood houses in the 1790s, there was no place to go to church. When the area was called Factory Village, a family could journey to attend the Congregational Church of Hancock, but that was a long trip, impassible in winter or Mud Season. Most families probably held home-based religious activities on Sundays: prayers, scripture readings, hymn singing. In 1833, a group of town worthies banded together for worship as the Union Trinitarian Congregational Society, meeting in private homes for worship.

From then on, there was a push to build a church to serve those who lived on the banks of the Contoocook River. Congregationalism as a church movement, descended from Puritans who thought that each church should run its own affairs, unbeholding to the dictates of people elsewhere. By that time, citizens of what-would-become Bennington were feeling stirrings of independence, so a Congregational church would have been a good fit. Evangelical churches [Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian] were part of the Second Great Awakening of religion in the1800s in the US. This lead to buildings that were not ornate and soaring, like Gothic or Georgian-style churches.

The church building was constructed in the Village Center on the corner of Main Street and Francestown Road in 1839. To pay for it, families would pledge money and sweat-equity to put up the House of God. The style is a simple, gable-end structure. The steeple was the tallest structure in town. A pair of front doors lead into an entry vestibule, thence into the nave. Oddly, the boundary line between the Town of Hancock and the unincorporated Factory Village ran right along the front of the building. When entering the church, one stepped out of Hancock and into Factory Village.

Winter view of the church, most likely from the early 1900s. Note the electric lines and the attached vestry at back.

Church before 1947, with old Vestry as the small building on the left.

The nave is a 58’x50′ rectangle with a high ceiling. There was a balcony in the back where the choir sat. At first, there was no church organ and music was provided by two violins and a viola. Coming to church was often the social event of the week. There were two 90-minute services each Sunday, with an hour break in-between. During that time, the children attended Sunday School, everyone had lunch and a good tongue-wag.

The Parsonage, 1884.

In 1984, a parsonage was built by George Burns. Some of the ministers of the church included: Rev Ebeneezer Coleman; Rev. Albert Manson; Rev. James Holmes; Rev. Josiah Heald; Dr. Thomas Billings; Rev. Reginald Merrifield; Rev. William Clark, Jr; Rev. Marie Tolander; Rev. Fay Gemmell; Rev. Daniel Poling.

In 1853, a subscription was held to buy a bell for the steeple. In 1896, the small vestry building across the street was abandoned in favor of a set of attached rooms at the back of the church: kitchen, ladies’ parlor, wash room, small chapel. In 1899, a reed organ was installed. In 1917, a clock was donated for the steeple. The church interior was changed in the 1970s. With the lowering of the ceiling, the balcony was walled off.

For Decoration Day, c.1900, the ladies of the G.A.R bedecked the church.

Today, the church still holds services, with a revolving slate of ministers. The parsonage was sold off in 1977.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on July 31. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.